Review on Upgrade Your Kitchen With BambooMN Universal Premium Pull Out Cutting Board - Perfect Fit For Standard Slots, Heavy Duty With Juice Groove - 20" X 14" X 0.75" - 1 Piece by Samantha Hudson

Full disclosure, we didn’t buy this as a replacement for an under counter board, so I can’t speak to its suitability in that role. We bought it because we needed a larger cutting board, and in THAT capacity, it has been full value so far. Cutting down large cuts of meat into steaks or chops is a lot easier, and the juice groove catches most of the mess, which means I don’t need a baking sheet under it wipe I’m working. The thing that prompted me to look for such an item, though, was cutting a 16” pizza without having to do anything awkward.So why spend this much on a cutting board when you could pick up a plastic one for a fraction of the cost? It’s a fair question, and your answers may be different than mine, but this is what did it for me.First, I spent a lot of money on my knives. Good knives are the difference between cooking as a chore and cooking as a joy. And while plastic boards are better than nothing, plastic is abrasive by nature. As a result, my knives require more honing, which shortens their useful life.Second, while most of the wood boards I’ve worked with have been hardwoods (rock maple is popular in commercial grade butcher blocks) this boards are even more expensive than this one (by a lot) and don’t have some of the lesser known (but very useful) qualities of bamboo. Bamboo is naturally anti microbial for one thing, which doesn’t mean you don’t need to wash it, just that it’s less likely to provide a home for germs when you’re not using it. Also, growing bamboo requires no cultivation — the new stalk simply grows where the old one was cut down. That means the carbon (and methane) that’s sequestered in the soil it’s growing in stays in the soil rather than the air. It also requires no chemical fertilizers or pesticides, and far less water than other crops.So in addition to the utility of having a cutting board big enough for the heavy work, I can also save wear and tear on my knives, my health, and the environment. What’s not to like?